According to Adam Swift at MMAPayout.com, Dana White has recently began to focus more of his time on fighter relations than he had been previously giving to it. Joe Silva remains the VP of Talent Relations for Zuffa, but Swift is reporting that Dana White is now becoming much more involved in that area of the business. The article points at Couture's resignation from the promotion as being the primary cause to the refocusing of his priorities in the business.

Did Couture's resignation have a profound effect on the current status between Zuffa and its fighters? Dana White seems to think that the relationships between the promotion and its fighters has been degrading, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the theory is very true. Within the last year, the heavyweight division could very well be the easiest target for these problems.

Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia, and Randy Couture are all done with the UFC in some capacity right now in their careers. Arlovski is rumored to have signed with any and all promotions in the North American market right now, but nothing has been confirmed and the UFC is still talking to him. Tim Sylvia left the promotion on good terms, but did state after his bout with Frank Mir that he was unhappy with his pay compared to Brock Lesnar's purse for his loss. Sylvia has stated his displeasure with the promotion from time to time over the years as well.

The most significant loss to the promotion was Randy Couture, who spontaneously resigned from the promotion during a film shoot in South Africa. Unfortunately for fans and Couture, Couture isn't exactly allowed to simply resign from a contract, and we are now faced with the upcoming legal battle between Zuffa and Couture. Regardless of the legal hassles, one of the main points that Couture stated was the cause of the resignation from the promotion was the lies that Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White had told him, along with the numbers of his contract compared to his current status within the promotion. Couture is the UFC Heavyweight Champion, and his argument was that his pay was “disrespectful” compared to what he's done for the promotion.

In a sense, poor fighter relations could be part of the problem with the recent departures, and White wants to make sure that his talent pool doesn't continue to depart. Respect and treatment of the fighters has been a focus of the problems with Zuffa lately, and this move by White should only improve those aspects of the promotion. Overall, I like the move. White moves from dealing with the business side of the promotion back to getting in the “trenches” of pleasing fighters, maintaining communication, talking with managers and agents, and hopefully grabbing some fresh new talent. In any case, it definitely can't hurt the promotion.